The scoop on Sneed: She’ll be back soon

Michael Sneed, the star gossip columnist who’s been missing in action from the Chicago Sun-Times for more than five weeks, is alive and almost well.

Readers have been told only that she’s been on “personal leave” since her last column ran on June 29. Reached at home Thursday, Sneed said she’s been sidelined with a painful but treatable medical condition. She declined to discuss specifics, but said she expects to make a full recovery and return to work “within the next few weeks,” adding: “I am looking forward to going back.”

Her time off has been longer than expected because her condition was not properly diagnosed until recently, she said.

Sneed, 67, who spent 18 years at the Chicago Tribune before joining the Sun-Times in 1986, said she’s looking forward to marking her 25th anniversary at the paper in December. “I have no intention of not working there when I finish my 25th year,” she said. “It’s been a joy working for a paper which was never the patriarchal place it was at the Tribune when I was there.”

Her last column was a tribute to Lura Lynn Ryan, the late wife of former Governor George Ryan. Sneed lamented that she’d failed to visit her friend before she died June 27.